(OLD VER.) Avenue 17 | SVT ENSEM.

[ 十四 ] FOURTEEN

[ "maybe if you streamed Mr Taxi" ]

the process wasn't easy. minghao never doubted it. but in the end, it would be worth it because he would know where junhui was every second of the day. because he'd be right beside him. that's all that mattered. the flight was booked and junhui was ready to get on the plane. every few minutes, he'd message minghao and give him time updates as if the younger didn't know. he'd say "25 minutes" and minghao would reply "stay safe", he'd tell the younger "10 minutes, i'm nervous" and minghao would soothe his worries, "you'll be okay. we'll meet soon." junhui sent him "boarding" and minghao replied, "i know. try and sleep, forget your worries and just think that you're visiting me." which was true. how long could junhui possibly stay?

minghao knew the late flight would make junhui arrive at the ungodly hours of the morning when the sun hadn't even peeked out to say hi yet. yet he waited. he stayed up for uncountable hours until he left his apartment as the clock came closer to 4am. on his way out, he spotted wonwoo just...walking around. he wanted to ask what was bothering the older but minghao felt like there were other pressuring things at hand. so he sent a quick apology to wonwoo in his mind and hurried out. just as minghao got to the arrivals section, he spotted junhui rolling his luggage out. "hui hui!" he called, getting the older's attention immediately. junhui walked a little faster just to meet minghao's embrace. it finally felt like his worries were gone; all absorbed by minghao's one, simple hug. "let's get you back to my place. we need to sleep."

junhui hit the pillows as it hit 5:30am. minghao had let him shower first and he had collapsed onto the first comfortable thing he saw, which was ultimately minghao's very own bed. it was soft, warm and comfortable so junhui fell asleep right away. minghao didn't have the heart to move the obviously exhausted boy so he just took the couch. junhui had barely said anything to minghao the whole time. while the younger was indeed excited at the thought of his friend visiting and being with him, it hurt to think of the reason why. junhui wasn't visiting or on a holiday, he had nowhere to go. he had been kicked out and had lost a home. minghao's chest hurt thinking about all of this. he hoped junhui could recover from this, but he didn't know how they'd manage when junhui's visiting time was up. could he even go back? where would he stay? ah, it's too much to think about at 6am.

【 ☆ 】

wonwoo was startled awake. he didn't know why but suddenly, he couldn't breathe. he tried his best to slip out of mingyu's hold and quietly slipped out of their apartment. there was a cool breeze that blew by as wonwoo stepped out into the ground floor's garden area. he wrapped his cardigan around him a little tighter and sighed. what could've woken him up? he looked up at the moon and he felt himself calm down a little as he sat on one of the benches and took in the scent of the gardens. seungcheol had let jeonghan work his creative magic and he always chose new kinds of flowers in the gardens every two months. jeonghan had a very creative mind and it worked out when deciding and designing the little details of the place. wonwoo couldn't tell for the life of him what kind of flowers were in the garden that time, but he enjoyed their scents being mixed with the crisp air.

he sighed yet again, trying to then come up with an excuse if mingyu ever asked him about his whereabouts when the morning came. needed air? too many thoughts in his head?... mingyu would get too concerned and wonwoo didn't want him to worry; it wasn't that serious. maybe just telling him the truth. wonwoo decided he would think about it later. he just wanted to sit in the quiet for a while and have his mind as free from thoughts as possible. but how could he possibly sit without any thoughts if he was naturally an over-thinker? of course wonwoo being wonwoo, he just couldn't stop himself from thinking about mingyu. he could try to write off mingyu's care and concern as friendship but some part of him wanted to create a lie and believe in more. personally, he'd like to think the tiniest part of mingyu could...maybe like him back. but the other part of his brain told him he was stupid for thinking this way and that mingyu couldn't possibly have fallen for him. in any other world. because why would he?

wonwoo started to tear. yeah...why would mingyu like him? he simply didn't have anything likeable about him. mingyu, on the other hand- wow-, he was everything and so much more. mingyu had all the greatest traits anyone could have all contained in one person. on top of that, he was probably hand crafted by whatever god was out there. mingyu almost didn't belong to the realm of earth; he probably was sent right from above as an example of the perfect human being. wonwoo wouldn't be surprised if he was right.

【 ☆ 】

early friday morning, the joshua-seokmin duo awoke and began preparing for the day. seokmin quickly updated their social media to announce that they'd be closing early that day. of course, they wouldn't say exactly why but ultimately it was so they could spend time preparing for the party that night. in their excitement, their day sped past quickly without much complaint from joshua. finally, their closing time came and the two worked on the drinks and snacks that they wanted to bring and share out.

"checklist!" seokmin called out. "soonyoung's singular peach tea, special drink for wonwoo done." joshua responded. "made an extra peach for soonyoung. we had leftovers anyway." seokmin said as joshua exited from the back with a pack of pearls. "let's get crackin' on the bubble tea." a bell on their glass doors rang. it was soonyoung. "hey!" the two greeted. "need something?" soonyoung nodded shyly, lowering his voice to speak only to seokmin. seokmin told his boyfriend through silent communication that everything was alright. "i...need a quick favour." he nodded for soonyoung to continue. "i'm...uh- planning... something for tonight and i want to buy some of your stuff...?" soonyoung bit his lip. as if the couple wouldn't let him! "what d'you need?" seokmin asked.

what soonyoung wanted was simple. two of their strawberry lattes, packed in those cute glass bottles so that you could see the strawberries in them, their strawberry roll cake cut up into slices in a nice white box. seokmin noted it down. "what's the occasion?" he asked. soonyoung was shy to say, "i was kinda pressured to 'take jihoon out'." seokmin 'ooo'ed at him. "then let's make it extra special."

joshua had finished with the pearls a while ago and was just finishing up with the batch of tea. "special order. it's for jihoon~" seokmin teased to joshua, who laughed at his antics. "you finish up the tea and put it in the dispenser. i'll do the order."

joshua slid out one of the pink strawberry rolls from the fridge and got to work. first, the plastic around the treat. some sprinkles of powdered sugar on top. he got out the decorations usually reserved for valentine's day and sprinkled on some hearts. simple. but sometimes, simple is more than enough. joshua then carefully set it back into the fridge as he began working on the strawberry lattes. nothing special; strawberry syrup (with chunks!) in the bottom and milk on top, get the lid screwed on and it's complete! the cake was packaged, the bottles carefully put in a carrier and off they were passed to soonyoung in exchange for some cash.

the boy kept bowing as he left the store, "ah, thank you so much for doing this. i'm really grateful. see you later!" seokmin smiled and sent a quick text to the gossip chat. jeonghan celebrated with way too many emojis. "okay let's get these back home." they eyed the things they needed to bring back and shared a look.

"taxi."
"taxi."

a/n: two weeks of school left ooo 🥺🥺 i have quite a few subjects' final assignments to do,, i just really want everything to be over :(( also! for english i've got a project to do on genre and aesthetics and i was lowkey tempted to make a "fic" 😰😳 i'm stressing a bit about this task but yk,, i hope a good idea comes soon aha if y'all have any prompt ideas in genres like romance(the literary version) or magical realism then please drop them! or if you happen to find any please let me know! i will accept anything 🤧🤧

anyway! 호랑해!🐯
- eli